The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-09-17
BEN BuNKER's SCHEME.
Some Interesting incidents Of the
Great Raid In Kennebec County.
lKennebec Journal.l

county Attorney Carleton was found al
his room by the Journal reporter yesterday
morning, suffering from severe cold When
asked If he had seen Ben Bunker's effusion
In the Boston Globe, he replied that he had
not-and did not care TO read the rawlings OF
so arrant hypocrite as he had proved him.
self to be all through his proceedings rela.
tive to the summoning of witnesses before
the grand jury this term. Mr.. Carleton was
finally induced to make a statement of facts
relative to the matter, as follows
In the first place, list of 80 witnesses
was presented to me by a member of the
grand jury from Waterville, of prominent
citizens Of Waterville. Mr.. Hall, the Jury
man who handed me the list, stated that he
knew nothing about it, but that it was
handed to him by gentleman whose name
he refused to give. said to him this is an
anonymous thing, know nothing about il
and l can take no notice of 1t; and told him
to give it to the Sheriff of the county if he
wanted to. That night saw Mr.. Hall and
Ben Bunker in secret conversation at the
Cony House, and the next morning Mr.. Hall
wanted to know if the Deputy from Oakland
would not be proper man to give the list to
| told him il he had list of names that no
body would bother l doubted the propriety
OF noticing it; for one would not.
That day, or the next, received tele-
gram e from ON Bunker asking if would sum-
bought intoxicating liquor of the druggists
and other places in Waterville. / replied.
Yes, if you will sign the list and state YOU
have reason to believe and do believe the
statement in your telegram is true" Mon
DAY, Bunker came down, handed me list Of
L
that time he was acting in good faith, but l
soon learned that he had been to men whose
names were on the list and told them to skip
as they were to be summoned, to others he
sald you let up on John Hayes and none
will be summoned" This came to me from
such sources could not doubt their abso-
lutte truth.
81 Immediately handed the list to the sher-
IN OF the county to do with it as in his
Judgement he should see fit and gave him a
subpoena to summon such as he judged for
the best. Twelve were summoned and came
before the grand jury. 1t should be borne in
mind that large number of witnesses from
Waterville had already been summoned and
had testified and evidence got sufficient
to lndict nearly every rumseller in Water
vile. Knowing this fact / suppose it was
the duty of the County Attorney not to put
the county to the unnecessary expense of
getting a. large number of witnesses from
Waterville.
In Wateryille has been indicted who is even
suspected OF selling rum, some dozen or more
In number, and the evidence to do this had
been secured by the officers of the county.
and this, coupled with the fact of Bunker's
duplicity in telling witnesses to skin. and
threatening others that if they did not do % SO
and SO they would be summoned, seemed to
afford sufficient reason for not summoning a
most Of Waterville's best citizens before the
grand jury.
ha Al
was added to the list summoned, at the sug-
gestion of officers of the county. That af-
ternoon Bunker stalked into the grand Jury
room unbidden, and threw down a paper.
saying; This is list of seventy names
demand to have summoned 1 ordered him
from the room,. and put the, paper in my
pocket supposing it contained a list of addf-
tional men to be summoned from Water
vile, until Juryman, who seemed to know
about it asked If had not been asked to
summon men from Augusta. looked at it
then and found it was a list of the most
prominent men in Augusta-the names of
VIM. K Smith, Hon. John L. Stevens. Hon.
.; D. Baker, VIM II; Bigelow, Hon. P. o.
Weeks, JOS. A. Homan, Howard Owen, etc..
men who would scorn to buy liquor or use it.
declined to take any further notice of it un-
der instruction from the grand jury.
~ ~bunker TAX that only Democrats are
prosecuted is the idlest twaddle, and he
knows it is false. can't tell the politics of
six men out of the 1O1 who have been indict-
ed this term, and don't care what it is. /
know that Republican, Ivory Hayes. has
been sent to jail this term for liquor selling.
Tom Pinkham, believe, was always Re-
publican except one year, it is said, when he
voted the Third Party ticket. A Republican
Alderman and constable of Hallowell are
fugitives from justice. from being prose-
cuted.
"The simple truth is it disturbs Ben Bum
ker and those of his ilk very much because
the law is being most rigidly enforced. Ben
Bunker stated just before his interview, as /
am told by a man who heard him say it, that
County Attorney Carleton had beat him at
his own game, but he would give him the
devil at the next grand jury
The County Attorney, as / stated in a
letter last summer, has nothing to do with
hunting rumsellers. His business is in
court; the officers are specially enjoined by
statute to do this.
There are those who don't want the law
enforced, for if it is their stock argument is
gone. But so long as am the prosecuting
officer of this county l shall do my utmost to
do my whole duty without fear or favor, and
l am happyuto add, the Sheriff and his dep
uties are determined to crush ou. the traffic.
1t never in the history of the county was in
such close quarters as at the present time"